Pro-birthers vs. Pro-Lifers

Since the reversal of Roe vs. Wade it’s become difficult to keep track of how the ruling is playing out without a scorecard… particularly since the game has gone into extra innings.

Yet even in Red vs. Blue America, the battle lines are not cleanly drawn, and states cannot be simply grouped into ‘pro’ or ‘con’.

Sanctuary.  There are 15 states (with the exception of New Mexico) in which the right to an abortion is expressly protected by state constitution or legislation. In all of these states providers are held harmless, and there is no restriction on the use of state funds:

• New Mexico, Alaska, California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, , Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Vermont, Washington

Hospitable.  In an additional 9 states and the District of Columbia, abortion is legal for at least the first 22 weeks of pregnancy, but the use of tax funds is prohibited.  In Rhode Island and Colorado, governors issued executive orders protecting providers:

• Nebraska, Pennsylvania, Virginia, New Hampshire, Washington, D.C., Delaware, Nevada, Rhode Island, Colorado, Kansas.

In Limbo.  Final outcomes remain uncertain for 9 states in which judges have temporarily blocked bans – both pre-Roe and post-Roe, but abortion remains available up to 22 weeks:

• Arizona, Iowa, Michigan, Montana, North Dakota, Ohio, South Carolina, Utah, Wyoming

Hostile.  Even among states most hostile to abortion rights, Oklahoma’s new law is an outlier that bans abortion from point of fertilization.

Oklahoma is also one of 9 states that make no exceptions for rape or incest.  (Mississippi exempts victims of rape, but not of incest.)

• Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi Missouri, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Wisconsin

In an additional 6 states, abortion rights are subject to restriction including shortened time limits for the procedure and prosecution of providers:

• Indiana, West Virginia, Idaho, , Florida, Georgia, North Carolina

But not all of the obstruction has been legal.

A man who broke windows and security cameras at a Planned Parenthood clinic in southwestern Oregon because he opposed abortion has pleaded guilty to two counts of violating the federal Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act.

The Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act of 1994 prohibits intentionally injuring, intimidating, or interfering with, or attempting to injure, intimidate, or interfere, any person by force, threat of force, or physical obstruction or to intimidate such person or any other person or any class of persons from, obtaining or providing reproductive health services… or intentionally damaging or destroying the property of a facility because such facility provides reproductive health services.